The cold water forces my sleepy eyes to be wide awake and the gust of cold wind invites my senses to go into slumber.
Yep, that’s how I feel every time I attend the Misa de Gallo or Rooster Mass.

It has been a tradition in the Philippines to attend the Misa de Gallo, in preparation and waiting for the coming of the Holy Child Jesus Christ. It’s a series of very early morning masses, nine dawns to be exact, starting from the 16th up to the 24th of December. Some of us believes that when you complete the nine days, you get to make a wish and the Lord will grant it. But for me, it’s not. I really don’t believe with the wish. I just see it as a sacrifice to wake up very early and be in one with God for nine days.

This morning, I attended the first mass for this year’s Misa de Gallo. On previous years, it was never my doing to take a bath. I just wear on my clothes, drink coffee and go. But this year, I convinced myself that it should be different. That I should actually make this year’s Rooster masses something of an accomplishment.

See, I’m not really keen on completing the nine days. Last year, I was only able to go 4 out of 9. It sounds lame, and yeah, it does feel lame. Especially when your parents invite you to wake up every single morning.

This year, I’m really not expecting to complete the days, especially with upcoming Christmas parties that ends up in the wee hours of the night.

So, I woke up at exactly 3 am, took a bath (which was surprisingly not that cold), wore my clothes (which I prepared the night before), didn’t apply too much make up, made coffee for two and brought it with me so that Kim can also drink some. We arrived at church exactly as the Introductory reading started and unfortunately, we were not able to seat. All the pews were full. It seems that some people made camping in the church grounds overnight or arrive at 1 am. Mass starts at 4 am. I did feel sleepy at some point, but I was wide awake through most of the parts.

What I noticed though with the recent changes I did was the benefits it gave me afterwards. It’s not on a religious aspect though, but it’s still worth all the extra effort I made. Here it goes.

The Benefits of Misa de Gallo (to me.):

1. By waking up early and taking a bath early, I actually save more time with my supposed daily routine every morning in preparation for work. I’ve practically done half of the ritual (bathing, clothing, semi-make up) at 3 am. When I get back from the mass, I still have plenty of time to do extra stuff, like eating a full breakfast instead of just cereals or coffee.

2. I can get out off the house early and start my one hour and a half drive to work without the act of racing with my wrist watch. I mean, seriously, time is so cruel to me (sly grin). I get to sit comfortably in the PUV knowing that I’m not running late.

3. I can develop the habit again of controlling the amount of sleep that I need. If I just do this consecutive for 3 days, I can wake up even if I slept 2 hours before 3 am. (I know this is drastic, but it’s a sacrifice, remember?)

4. I get to accomplish a mini-goal of sacrificing one’s sleep for the mass and some time with God.

5. It can actually train my body clock to wake up in a scheduled time, with or without the mass as the reason.

So, those are the benefits that actually helped me a lot today. I’ve got problems with time in travelling, since I always get caught up in traffic.

How about you? Any beneficial factors that you gained from Misa de Gallo?